The client for the f2p stress test finally became available this morning, so I dutifully started the download. The download speed is less than stellar:

Heh, seriously I'm getting around 250-300kbps which is still slow. :/ Gonna take around 14 hours it seems, plus Pando keeps crashing on me. One has to wonder if the 500 free points is that worth it? :P

Conflagration, the culminating quest of the Goblin Camp quest line in the High Pass of the Misty Mountains is one of the best quests in the game for me, mainly for it's comedic value. Others are cool due to something nerdy stuck in regarding lore, but this one always makes me laugh and entertains me to no end. :P I'll make a cut here to not spoil just in case.

I've always like the summoning horn animation. I'm guessing this will become a thing of the past with the new instance join panel we'll be getting whenever we get f2p. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, it will be nice not to spend time getting to the instance. On the other, I think I'll miss everyone travelling to the location and entering together. But I suppose we'll all get used to it soon enough.

Got the latest and greatest LM sword tonight! w00t! I did my first BG raid with my new kin and it was very enjoyable...well...except for that part where I wiped the raid. :/ Meh, it was only my second time dealing with the sorcerers on LM and at least I feel like I learned a lot tonight. Also, it was so refreshing to go clear the first two bosses in HM in one night and have it feel mostly easy, given the raid's been out for nearly 11 months now. Tonight definitely made me feel that I made the right choice to move, which is a nice feeling. :)

It's getting pretty tough to see all the US lotro blogs raving over the Haunted Cellar. I must say I'm quite jealous. EU folks did get a festival (much to everyone's surprise) but it's only the old festival. The Troves and Trickery quests seemed different though and we got some new consumables, so at least some effort has been made by Codemasters. But the jewel of the festival seems to be the Haunted Cellar which is tied to f2p which the EU doesn't have yet...and who knows when we'll get it. We're supposed to be getting a date announced in the next week. I just hope this announcement won't be f2p coming in a month or so.

So in the meantime, I'll grind some virtues whilst those across the pond have fun in the cellar. At least I found these goblins to have a chat with whilst in Goblin Town...though I'm afraid their conversation bored me so much I had to kill them. :P

Looks like someone entered the numbers in the wrong field. Though, luckily for them, they'll get their stuff back. I've entered numbers in the wrong field before and sold something for faaaaaaaaaar much less than it's worth.

I think I'm cursed when it comes to the LM DN robe. I've been lusting after that robe for a very long time...it's just so gorgeous. I should have never passed on it the first time I could have gotten it...because after that, spousal aggro caused me to not complete the Mistress fight the next time I was there and on the top and ready to take it. Tonight I joined a pug BO/Mistress with a few friends. Seems the raid was stacked in favour of some people. On the BO, the leader wins the armour and passes it to someone else. On the Mistress I was the high roller, looks like I was all set to win...but the leader dallied about and at the last minute another person came in a rolled higher than me...then passed it to someone who rolled lower. Needless to say, I was pissed off. :P I've never liked it when people roll for others. I don't like having the odds stacked against me. But this taught me a valuable lesson: don't pug raids! :P

On a happier note, I did my first raid with my new kin. It was a Watcher run. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do something I know really well with them as I'm not wanting to jump straight into BG. Better to ease in a bit I think...and start learning all those new voices on vent!

This week has brought a big change to my lotro life. I decided to leave my kin that I've been in for a little over a year now and move to another. Even though I had been doing less and less with them and finding myself moving on, I found it quite difficult to hit that 'quit' button. I even shed a little tear :P, I think out of not wanting to hurt anyone (as I was an officer as well) and for the good times that had been shared. But I felt it was time for me to move on. I left on good terms and hope that I still run into them. It's daunting joining a new kin, being the noobie and having to learn lots of new names and their myriad of alts, but I received a warm welcome and the atmosphere seems very friendly and fun. So here's to new beginnings!

My loremaster is continuing her journey through the epics. She was asked to go to Forochel and I figured what the heck: I'll ride all the way there from Rivendell! I put on a Guild Wars soundtrack (if only lotro had that calibre of music!!), turned off my UI and enjoyed the watching the scenery change...and of course took lots of screenies along the way! Warning, the rest is screenshot heavy!

Well not really. :P Anyway, I logged into Google Analytics out of curiousity. I hadn't been posting on this blog for a bit so figured that very few people were even looking. But there was a big spike in visitors on October 1st. I wondered what the heck happened to cause that. I noticed next that the most frequent referring site had become massively.com! :o Upon further investigation, I see that my blog got linked in an article there! woot!

Heh, an extra reward for attaining that Undying Title! Thanks Syp! :D Though I wouldn't say it made me crazy to get it. It was a nice challenge that took cautious gameplay...which is a bit tough for a warden when you want to grab 4-5 mobs at a time. ;)

I was running WP last night several times with friends to get the cloak for my LM (guard, burg, lm combo rocks!! Most enjoyable group I've done so far I think) without any luck. Instead, weapons drop. This dagger that drops from the first boss of WP really confuses me. When you look at it, it looks like a slightly better weapon than Amdillang.My LM would love to use that. One problem: LMs can't use daggers. Lets think about other classes. Runekeepers can't use it. Minstrels will be using an LI. Same for captain. Burgs and hunters could use is as an offhand aside from the fact it's no good for them and there's better stuff out there. So why on earth did the devs make a dagger with these stats? It should have been a sword...or basically put that extra bit of morale on Amdillang.

To end on a positive note, my LM won the BG gloves last night. That would be my first on-level raid peice! (I was 65 when doing watcher and DN). Pity I won't be wearing them outside of BG though. The Watcher set is just too sweet.

I don't know if any of you who read here remember Glib Undergarments:But I ran into him the other day and noticed his last name had been changed. I sent him a tell asking him what happened and unsurprisingly some miserable git reported it. It's a bit sad for me when fun things like this get reported.

Warning, late night rant after several hours of raiding (and am in fact still in said raid)! :P

The BG mechanic of mobs respawning whilst you're in the raid is just bloody stupid and what has turned off a lot of all but the most hardcore, best raiding kins from the raid. It takes so much effort, work, and time to get to the bosses. By the time you get to the boss you don't have much time for several tries at the bosses before all the "trash" respawns (I use the term 'trash' loosely as the mobs/pulls between bosses can be damn hard). I've been doing a run with RRU tonight and we did awesome on the guantlet and did Durchest HM. But the part heading up to the Twins just took a bit too long. We got one try at HM on the twins (got close but not quite damnit). We want to try again...but it's all respawned. Neither minstrel was able to make it back on their own so we did a suicide run and got 8 people back up to the Twins..but missing crucial people. Currently I'm sitting here waiting to see if people can sneak up (and my poor friend Sassy's burg's repair bill is going to be insane. Share the Fun isn't so fun for him I think!). The one-shotting wargs are making running up impossible.

It's all the trash in between bosses that has kept my own kin from running BG very much, especially as that trash isn't forgiving in the least in regards to mistakes. One missed mez generally foreshadows a wipe. Not to mention bugged wargs that you can't see even when they're on your radar!. Whatever dev thought it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of tries you have on a boss..well frankly my feeling at the moment is that they can go to hell. :P

You may now be known as Isoldeth the Undying! w00t! \o/I'm really enjoying warden so far. I used to think it looked scary hard but once you get into it, it isn't. Though I've been playing it a bit safe since I wanted that title. Time to let loose now!

Been a little while since I posted. I was on holiday then busy once back. Anyway, I feel like posting some LotR related things I ran into whist in Germany. :P

Hobbits! Well sort of. ;) These were actually good. Reminded me of Nilla Wafers from back home.

Mushrooms! I actually did yell this when I saw this massive one! ^^

Note the name under the cartoon dog. Also the 'I <3 Texas' is amusing given that's where I'm from (and no I don't have a southern twang, listen to country music, wear cowboy hats or have ever owned livestock! I also loathe the Republican Party! :P)